Stanford to end $20m T20 challenge

Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire, has decided to scrap the Twenty20 for 20 million challenge but still wants to remain involved with English cricket, according to a report in the Telegraph.

Stanford plans to scrap the 5-year $100 million deal in favour of a 3-year deal, featuring an annual quadrangular tournament at Lord's, of which the Stanford Superstars will be one of the teams.

The new agreement has been reached upon after months of negotiation with the ECB since the Super series in October and is believed to be worth a fraction of the $100m deal.

ECB are yet to sign on the dotted line while the Professional Cricketers Association (PCA) are reluctant about discussing the deal with the players who are currently involved in a Test series against West Indies.

The ECB are short on time with the the first quadrangular tournament scheduled to be held at the end of May.

"It is imperative we get to the bottom of what the benefits are to English cricket and we would like longer to look at the deal than we had last time," said Sean Morris, the chief executive of the PCA. "We are in friendly negotiations with the ECB and we will take it to the players at the appropriate time. At the moment they are fully focused on the Test series and we do not want to distract them from that."

The ECB plans to meet with the players before the third Test begins on February 18 but Stanford wants a decision earlier than that.